A signing ceremony was held for the joint venture at the Sunyi Industrial Park in Beijing, where the joint venture will locate its first manufacturing plant and a research and development center.

Under the agreement, ALTe will own one third of the joint venture, Mesa Industrial Technology Corp., which will serve the medium duty bus and truck market in China, with opportunities to export globally on multiple vehicle applications. The joint venture will also seek vehicle parts partnerships dedicated to supplying the joint venture and ALTe with high quality, efficient and affordable electronic devices needed in the growing electric and plug in hybrid vehicle markets.

At full capacity in the forthcoming four factories, Mesa is projected to realize production volumes of at least 240,000 units annually. A total of $200 million has been committed to the joint venture.

“All parties to the transaction share the vision of growing the entire electric vehicle ecosystem to achieve an unprecedented scale allowing for the accelerated adoption of an affordable and sustainable alternative to the traditional petroleum based transportation system,” said ALTe chairman John Thomas.

S. Moody Alavi, managing director of Mesa Century, added: “China is clearly going to be the leader in adoption of new energy vehicles due to its sheer size and growing needs. The commercial vehicle segment is an intelligent first market to focus on and we plan to continue to expand from there.”

Simon Ahn, board member and lead investor of ALTe, facilitated the transaction, with the participation of the Global Cleantech Fund LLC of Atlanta, Ga.

ALTe is the developer of the first range-extended plug-in electric hybrid powertrain used to power light commercial vehicles. The system will be retrofit into existing fleet vehicles while also being used in “glider” applications of new vehicles to dramatically increase their fuel economy and lower emissions. Designed to replace a base V8 internal combustion engine powertrain, the system’s patented technology improves fuel economy from 80 percent to 200 percent. Based in Auburn Hills, the company is headquartered in a 185,000-square-foot facility where it will assemble its powertrains that will be shipped to installation locations across North America.